Previously, I wrote tips on using the old post warning plugin called the old post alert. As I have stated on that post, this kind of  plugin is somewhat necessary if you have your Classipress Classifieds as a free service and you don’t want to prune the user submitted ads for SEO purposes.

Though the plugin works just fine but its limited and no configuration option at all makes it difficult to customize according to your needs. For instance, you cannot change the old post notice text unless you have to tinker with its code. Also, the alert notice is placed after the comment submit button which does not give prior warning to the reader that the post or ad is already old.

With Classipress classifieds site, you have the option to automatically delete an ad after a specified period but it will not be good in the eyes of the search engine and SEO as a whole. This is so because, your deleted ad would still come out in search engine result and once clicked the searcher will then be directed to the 404 error page. Also, if you opt to have the ads deleted, your content will also be diminished and again not good for SEO.

For this reason and since my classifieds site is a free service, I choose not to delete the ads. I just inform my classifieds site visitor that the particular ad is already old. And for this, I use a plugin called the Old Post Alert Plugin.

Most forums nowadays have a buy and sell section. What makes them more interactive is that you can make a reply on a particular topic/thread and embed images and even videos on it. Though you can edit your original forum post but you can also make an update on your thread by simply adding a reply. This is what makes a forum based classifieds more upbeat.

And so I want to have this kind of interactivity on my Classipress classifieds site. Isn’t it good for you and your user to be able to update their ads/postings with images by simply embedding it on the comment thread?

One of Classipress best feature is the inclusion of Google Maps. Once the user entered a street address, his posting will automatically show a map based on the given location. This is really a cool and useful feature specially for Real Estate Classipress site as users would no longer have to include a map image on their real property ads listings. This feature has made Classipress one of the best wordpress classifieds theme there is.

I prefer to have the Classipress Google map to default in hybrid mode because it is more visually appealing than the simple map. The hybrid map is a combination of a map and satellite imagery that which I find better graphically and visually. It is also very useful for Classipress Real Estates Classifieds sites because it can provide a bird’s eye view of the listed property at first glance. However, the Classipress Google map default display is on simple street map.

When running a Classifieds site or a site in general, it is not only interesting but useful to know who is visiting your website, where these visitors come from and what they do on your site. You can use this information to optimize your site for keywords, targeted demographics and more. This is what we usually call as Search Engine Optimization, SEO in short.

Since WordPress do not come with any visitor statistics, every classifieds site owner has to implement and manage his own solution to track visitors and display statistics. And with this Statpress Reloaded plugin comes to the rescue. Yes, there are other available wordpress stats plugins but I find Statpress Reloaded intuitive and useful enough for my Classipress wordpress classifieds site.

I have just updated my car finder site, www.cars.cebulive.com to the latest version of Classipress and every thing went smoothly. The whole upgrade process is seamless as long as you just follow the update instructions. I have not noted any bugs at all. Kudos to David, the owner of Classipress, for providing us one of the best update.

Classipress is one of the best classifies ads theme/platform there is. It is so because updates are provided free of charge forever. The customer support is also one of a kind as you are personally attended by David through the support forum for any concerns of your Classipress installation.

Classipress is a great wordpress theme-classifieds ads platform. With it, you have to option to set a schedule when a particular ad will expire and subsequently deleted. It is a really great feature but it will also result to several error 404 pages when a particular page or posting is already indexed by the search engine.

There are several wordpress plugins to manage error for redirection but I find the easy way to do it is to change the Classipress default 404. Simply replace the Classipress 404.php code with the code below;

Showing some random automated cosmetic activities will definitely make your Classipress site more exciting and never boring. A way to do that is to have random images of your ads displayed in the main page. Every time someone visits your site he or she sees different images displayed thus making your Classipress site visually dynamic. I used it on my site, www.cars.cebulive.com.

Random images can be displayed using a plugin called Random Image Selector. As with other wordpress plugin, it is every easy to install. You just have to put the provided code to where you want the random image to show. You can have many instances of the code and so you can display a number of random images. And in my site, I have four images that are displayed on the front page.

To make your Classipress site more interesting to visitors is to make it look active taming with activities. One way to show it is to display members or users who are online. When a first time visitor sees that your site has a lot of activities he or she may be inclined to check and register to your site.

Members/users who are online info can be displayed using the plugin, WP UserOnline by Lester Chan. The plugin will also provide you with detailed statistics of where they are and who there are including Guests and Search Bots. As a wordpress plugin, it is easy to install. You can then display users online information by simply using a widget.

Here’s a tutorial on how to put a text section in the main page (just right before the main listing). You can see this on my site www.cars.cebulive.com (below).

First you have to find the code below in the index.php using the theme editor in the dashboard. Simply click on Appearance then Editor and there you will find it.